Thermal printing has always held the downside of the fact that print head deterioration as well as poor thermal paper quality can result in poor print quality, which can lead to a number of downstream issues and problems. These problems include the failure to be able to read the intended printed information, which can often include bar codes that are read by scanners as part of the process. Failure of these bar codes or other information to print correctly and, as a result be non readable disrupts the intended process flow and results in potentially significant disruptions, requiring intensive actions to resolve.
The situation is often made worse as many thermal printing operations are unmanned allowing for the problem to persist for an extended period of time before being identified and only after process interruptions have occurred. This magnifies the seriousness of the problem created and increases the required effort to correct.
The identified problems, associated with printing bar codes and other critical information, are not limited to thermal printers. That is, ink jet printers, impact printers, and laser printers also have similar issues, which are: unmanned printing stations can malfunction for an extended period of time before the problems are detected and corrected; such situations are costly to enterprises.